(The Center Square) – The reaction from Wisconsin Republicans to Gov. Tony Evers’ property tax relief plan was immediate, and almost unanimous.
Republican candidate for governor Tom Tiffany said Evers’ $1.3 billion in tax relief is not enough to cover the costs of the property tax increases his 400-year school funding order caused.
“It’s a Band-Aid,” Tiffany said during an interview Wednesday on News Talk 1130 WISN. “[Gov. Evers] will do anything to pump more money into schools.”
Evers this week proposed a property tax relief plan as a response to the property tax increases Wisconsin homeowners are seeing this year.
He also defended his 400-year school funding increase as necessary, saying Republicans “failed” for years to spend more on public education.
Will Flanders, with the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, said that’s not the case.
Flanders on Tuesday took to social media to point out that Evers’ 400-year school funding increase could raise property taxes across the state by $1.5 billion in just the next four years.
“A lot of concern about property taxes & the 400-year veto this year. But this is just the beginning. If districts tax to the max, it’s an additional ~$250 million per year. By 2030, taxpayers will be on the hook for ~$1.5 billion in new costs,” Flanders wrote. “Even if a district didn’t tax to the max this year, the new authority remains and snowballs.”
Quinton Klabon, with the Institute for Reforming Government, said taxes will likely snowball because many local schools “binged” on federal money during COVID and have not rolled that spending back.
“They did not let go of staff, even as enrollment collapsed, and, in many cases, they even hired a lot more staff! The solution: raise your property taxes,” Klabon said. “[For example] when teacher health care costs rise 12% and student enrollment drops 3%, they blow holes in their budget and raise your property taxes through referendum.”
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Tiffany said Wisconsin needs to get rid of the 400-year school funding increase, freeze property taxes, and spend much less across all levels of government in order to get the state’s tax bills under control.
“There is a whole series of things that can be done here to get us back to fiscal responsibility,” Tiffany added. “We spend plenty of money. We are in the top 10 in property taxes in the United States. We spend plenty of money.”